Herbert Sutcliffe - 1933 To 1939

1933 To 1939

In 1933, Sutcliffe could not repeat his outstanding form of the 1932 season but he still scored a considerable 2,211 runs at 47.04, although it was his lowest tally in a dry summer since 1921. He completed 7 centuries with a highest score of 205 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Sutcliffe scored 304 runs at 50.66 in four Tests against Australia in 1934. His first-class aggregate for the 1934 season was 2,023 runs at 49.34 with 4 centuries and a highest score of 203 against Surrey at The Oval. In 1935, Sutcliffe's Test career ended when he missed the Third Test against South Africa due to a leg injury and then never recovered his place when he was fit again. Wisden's view was that England wished to try out younger players but it pointed out that Sutcliffe "remains a prolific runscorer".

Sutcliffe's record in Test cricket is outstanding. As shown by the adjacent graph, he is the only English batsman who has averaged more than 60 runs per innings in a completed career and his statistical record compares favourably with anyone except Don Bradman. Uniquely, Sutcliffe's batting average never dropped below 60 throughout his entire Test career and Javed Miandad is the only other player whose average never dropped below 50 in a career of at least 20 innings.

The demands of Test cricket behind him, Sutcliffe played in 29 of Yorkshire's 30 County Championship matches in 1936 but his average fell to 33.30, his worst seasonal performance since the early 1920s. His form rallied somewhat in the last three seasons of his career and he formed another outstanding opening partnership with Len Hutton who matured into a Test-class batsman in 1937. Sutcliffe and Hutton put on 315 for the first wicket against Leicestershire at Hull in 1937, Sutcliffe scoring 189 and Hutton 153. Sutcliffe faced Australian opposition for the final time in 1938 when he appeared in two matches against the tourists, one in July for Yorkshire at Bramall Lane and the other in September at North Marine Road in a Scarborough Festival match when he played for H D G Leveson Gower's XI.

Yorkshire completed another hat-trick of County Championships in 1939 and, although he was now 44 and certainly a "veteran", Sutcliffe enjoyed a remarkable sequence of four consecutive centuries in May and June which showed any doubters that he was still one of the best opening batsmen around. Sutcliffe was to play one more first-class match in 1945, but his career effectively ended in August 1939 when he played for Yorkshire against Hampshire at Dean Park Cricket Ground, Bournemouth, on Saturday, 26 August and Monday, 28 August. Yorkshire won by an innings and 11 runs in just two days. Sutcliffe and Hutton put on 56 before Hutton was out for 37 and Sutcliffe went on to score 51 before he was out at 117–2, leg before wicket to George Heath, who thus took his wicket for the second time in 1939.